DNA confirms man who had passed polygraph test as suspected killer in 1979 cold case

After 45 years, authorities in California were finally able to tell the Gonzalez family who they believe killed their loved one. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office used DNA and forensic genealogy to identify the suspected killer, who turned out to be the same man who reported finding Esther Gonzalez’s body to authorities.

After 45 years, authorities in California were finally able to tell the Gonzalez family who they believe killed their loved one. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office used DNA and forensic genealogy to identify the suspected killer, who turned out to be the same man who reported finding Esther Gonzalez’s body to authorities. On February 9, 1979, 17-year-old Gonzalez was walking to her sister’s house in Banning, California, about 85 miles east of Los Angeles. She never made it home. The next day, her body was found in a snowpack off a highway near Banning, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. She was attacked during her walk, raped and bludgeoned to death, authorities said. Deputies described the unidentified man who found the body as “argumentative,” according to the news release. The man, later identified as Lewis Randolph “Randy” Williamson, called the county sheriff to report the body and said he didn’t know whether it was a man or woman. Williamson was later asked by sheriff’s investigators to take a polygraph test. The district attorney’s office said he agreed to the test and passed, which “at the time, cleared him of any wrongdoing,” according to the release. Nearly five decades later, the district attorney’s office said a cold case homicide team used forensic genealogy to confirm Williamson is Gonzalez’s suspected killer.